Andrew,
Just use a 4k NVR is ok, if you have POE switch, just use a NVR5208-4ks2, or NVR5216-4KS2.
Also can use NVR5216-16P-4KS2 this is the best one for small project.
Just use a 4k NVR is ok, if you have POE switch, just use a NVR5208-4ks2, or NVR5216-4KS2.
Also can use NVR5216-16P-4KS2 this is the best one for small project.
I always suggest buying a 16ch NVR, if installing 4 cameras or 64 cameras use 16ch NVR's (and stack em if you have more than 16, dahua's will cluster)
I also dont like built in PoE; it puts the cameras on there own network and if you want to change settings directly on a camera (perhaps because its a 3rd party camera) then you will have to jump through hoops every time.. I also like the ability to run PoE WiFi and PoE IR Illuminators off my PoE Switch/Midspan.
I have a 4216-4k, the 5216-4ks2 came out like a month after I bought mine or I would have that instead.. mine's since been discontinued and is now available as the 4216-4ks2 with slightly better specs.
I also dont like built in PoE; it puts the cameras on there own network and if you want to change settings directly on a camera (perhaps because its a 3rd party camera) then you will have to jump through hoops every time.. I also like the ability to run PoE WiFi and PoE IR Illuminators off my PoE Switch/Midspan.
I have a 4216-4k, the 5216-4ks2 came out like a month after I bought mine or I would have that instead.. mine's since been discontinued and is now available as the 4216-4ks2 with slightly better specs.
cross posting this image, here is a size comparison of the mini-dome and the TOP-201 720p $35 PoE Camera.. Its been hard to give you a scale of how small this thing is until I took this shot.
and for shits and giggles here is a comparison shot from the TOP-201 (LOL!!)
and for shits and giggles here is a comparison shot from the TOP-201 (LOL!!)
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Jack B Nimble
Pulling my weight
Hey watch out for that fish tank mine just pissed out a corner last night in my living room about same size as yours. Killed all oak hardwood floors and my finished man cave has drywall ceiling which I had cut out today. Future tank relegated to basement .. a wet one but, Merry Christmas.
Ive got a flood alarm on it tha'll email me instantly if it springs a leak; and I have it hard plummed a drain and fill system from the basement so I can drain the tank automatically with the push of a button.. one of the reasons I wanted a camera in here; dont want to kill all my fish remotely if I dont have too.
The entire tank is automated changeouts, dosing, light controll, temperature, etc.. right now its been idling for over a year without me doing anything but feed em.. im waiting for the goldfish to perish and then I'll rehome whats left and go for a tropical setup.. I'll probably take that opportunity to replace the 55g tank with a fresh one thats not so aged.
My server room is below this; a tank popping gives me nightmares.. when I redo my office this might go into it onto the concrete foundation.
The entire tank is automated changeouts, dosing, light controll, temperature, etc.. right now its been idling for over a year without me doing anything but feed em.. im waiting for the goldfish to perish and then I'll rehome whats left and go for a tropical setup.. I'll probably take that opportunity to replace the 55g tank with a fresh one thats not so aged.
My server room is below this; a tank popping gives me nightmares.. when I redo my office this might go into it onto the concrete foundation.
Jack B Nimble
Pulling my weight
Ya its not fun when they leak, I cleaned my tank about a week ago and was thinking to myself I wonder how long is a long life for a tank. I had mine about 15 years and if you think about it just some caulking holding alot of pressure after awhile. Also I have a 5 year old daughter that bounced alot in the living room. When I was draining the tank during the leak she was bouncing and I could feel the tank vibrate pretty good which I never considered. In my case I don't think leak alarm would have helped as it peed out about 4 feet from tank and I would have needed a floor sensor and a level detector I guess in the tank. There was no water really near the tank and by the time any leak detector in basement would have noticed the tank would be empty. Try having your hand on corner of tank when the boy or adult plunks down in the couch depending on which way your floor joist run you may be surprised at the vibration.
its actually the wall of my server room that runs directly under it down to the cement floor, I made it a support wall and its not floating.. its surprisingly well planted.
damn goldfish live too long lol; this is the result of getting a goldfish for my son and putting it in a lil bowl.. then one day I googled goldfish and to my horror realized what a mistake I made so I built this thing; and now im hooked on aquatics.. its about 6 years old now and could live alot longer; if it was not a family pet at this point I'd replace the tank.. It was a 2nd hand tank, but a buddy of mine owns an aquarium shop and he re-siliconed so I'm hoping it'll last longer than this goldfish hah.
I have a level sensor in the tank to keep me from overfilling it, and I have a flood sensor on the floor right under the tank, and another one in my server room heh.. if the float sensor inside goes low it turns on my pressurized RO water line for a top off, and if that operation is not completed within 30s it nukes the fill attempt and immediately fires off every alarm I have.. so hopefully I'll know it sprang a leak in under a min, and my manual drain into the sewers will only go until the siphon on the intake pipe goes so it cant completely drain it, just mostly.. there would be enough left potentially to keep my goldfish and minnows alive for a lil while if I was remote.
I want to do a bigger tank in my office; planted to the brim.. it will have a fake wood tile floor and I'll even break the concrete under the tank to put a drain in the floor if I have too.. my basement is unfinished and I like watching my fish.
damn goldfish live too long lol; this is the result of getting a goldfish for my son and putting it in a lil bowl.. then one day I googled goldfish and to my horror realized what a mistake I made so I built this thing; and now im hooked on aquatics.. its about 6 years old now and could live alot longer; if it was not a family pet at this point I'd replace the tank.. It was a 2nd hand tank, but a buddy of mine owns an aquarium shop and he re-siliconed so I'm hoping it'll last longer than this goldfish hah.
I have a level sensor in the tank to keep me from overfilling it, and I have a flood sensor on the floor right under the tank, and another one in my server room heh.. if the float sensor inside goes low it turns on my pressurized RO water line for a top off, and if that operation is not completed within 30s it nukes the fill attempt and immediately fires off every alarm I have.. so hopefully I'll know it sprang a leak in under a min, and my manual drain into the sewers will only go until the siphon on the intake pipe goes so it cant completely drain it, just mostly.. there would be enough left potentially to keep my goldfish and minnows alive for a lil while if I was remote.
I want to do a bigger tank in my office; planted to the brim.. it will have a fake wood tile floor and I'll even break the concrete under the tank to put a drain in the floor if I have too.. my basement is unfinished and I like watching my fish.
Hello Nayr,
Thanks for the detailed reviews, much appreciated! Can you provide more detail on your set up for audio, I'm still struggling to get audio working on my Starlight vari-focal with a Dahua 5208-8P-4KS2 NVR. I have the audio/video box checked under camera encode, is there another setting I'm missing?
Thanks for the detailed reviews, much appreciated! Can you provide more detail on your set up for audio, I'm still struggling to get audio working on my Starlight vari-focal with a Dahua 5208-8P-4KS2 NVR. I have the audio/video box checked under camera encode, is there another setting I'm missing?
ah you have a PoE NVR, might need to plugin a laptop into the back of your NVR (its safe, poe wont hurt it) and try to configure the camera directly through its own WebUI, if you connect to its IP address in your browser you'll find a screen like this:
Your NVR might not support all the audio encoding options, might check its spec sheet and ensure your camera is configured for something it's capable of.
Your NVR might not support all the audio encoding options, might check its spec sheet and ensure your camera is configured for something it's capable of.
Jack B Nimble
Pulling my weight
Lol on your gold fish , I had one live for 12 years. Ran a big salt water tank with clown fish, live coral the whole bit years ago.
@nayr what is the lux reading from a lux meter for your low light scene? I apologize if I missed this in the thread but I am trying to get a sense of whether the scene was .1 lux, .5 lux, 1 lux, etc. I certainly believe that it is better than other cameras you tested, just trying to get a sense of how dark the scene was.
i dont have a lux meter that could read sub lux, or access to one.
the christmas tree is fairly bright; but the light it throws to my eye is very minimal.. I think most of the light came off my TV, all the rest was black..
this is as close to total darkness, except my laptop @ max brightens w/auto-exposure
it wont work miracles, but give it a lil visible light and its surprisingly good.. the snow in the back yard through the door is just moon lit and most of it melted.
the christmas tree is fairly bright; but the light it throws to my eye is very minimal.. I think most of the light came off my TV, all the rest was black..
this is as close to total darkness, except my laptop @ max brightens w/auto-exposure
it wont work miracles, but give it a lil visible light and its surprisingly good.. the snow in the back yard through the door is just moon lit and most of it melted.
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Ok, thanks. That image is helpful and it probably is very dark, especially in front of the sofa, though this does show that the camera does not some light which is significant step below the 1/2" 1080p imager cameras we've tested.
Btw, for the lux meter, they are helpful, just make sure they are spec'd to accurately measure sub 1 lux readings. Many lux meters are not but the sub 1 lux level tends to be most important for video surveillance given the concern for low light monitoring.
Btw, for the lux meter, they are helpful, just make sure they are spec'd to accurately measure sub 1 lux readings. Many lux meters are not but the sub 1 lux level tends to be most important for video surveillance given the concern for low light monitoring.
here is same scene with ONLY my living room lights at minimum dim, which is just enough to get up and walk around without busting your shins on something.. its reporting 5% dim level, any less and they go out.
I know its not scientific, but thats just two 12W 3700k recessed LED lights @ minimum dim if you have any idea what that is.. this is my late night movie/gaming mode, just enough to move about so I dont make more noise heh
if I Z-wave these to minimum dim I can easily see whats going on, already set it up to turn lights on dim if a door/window opens up late at night.. probably time to put a motion detector in the living room now
for the price its very admirable.. though now I want to see what the wedge will do, im sure with a little IR this will have awesome results indoors in total darkness; I think it'll be a great nanny/baby cam.
I know its not scientific, but thats just two 12W 3700k recessed LED lights @ minimum dim if you have any idea what that is.. this is my late night movie/gaming mode, just enough to move about so I dont make more noise heh
if I Z-wave these to minimum dim I can easily see whats going on, already set it up to turn lights on dim if a door/window opens up late at night.. probably time to put a motion detector in the living room now
for the price its very admirable.. though now I want to see what the wedge will do, im sure with a little IR this will have awesome results indoors in total darkness; I think it'll be a great nanny/baby cam.
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@nayr, thanks! I obviously cannot confidently guess the lux levels in your scene with the lights on 5% dim but we have found that even allowing a little light into a scene can increase lux levels significantly (say from 0.1 to 1 lux) that has a big impact on camera low light performance. Some cameras are certainly really bad (e.g., the 4MP omnivision based cameras we test tend to be really bad in even modest low light levels) but better imager 1080p cameras like the one you tested can do well with limited low light.